The Parlor brings a neighbors-first bar and lounge to Prospector

Photo: Spiro Photo // Adam ONeill.

PARK CITY, Utah — Dan Warren has run bars on both coasts and in between. Now, after a pandemic detour and a few years of skiing and mountain biking, he’s bringing that experience to a 575-square-foot room in Prospector.

The Parlor, a cocktail bar and lounge that opened quietly this month on Sidewinder Drive, is Warren’s third bar ownership venture and his most personal. His first two, Common Ground in New York’s East Village and West Third Common near NYU on West Third Street, each ran for more than a decade before his wife’s work moved the family to Chicago. There, he took over a bar and opened a restaurant inside a hotel until the pandemic ended that chapter.

“I didn’t want Chicago to be my last chapter,” Warren said. “I always had the goal of opening a bunch of bars, and three isn’t a bunch.”

The road back to bar ownership in Park City was longer than Warren expected. When he first called the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services (DABS) after arriving in town, he was told there were no licenses available and to sit tight until enough businesses closed to free one up.

He stepped back, skied a lot, biked, and waited. Last year, the DABS increased the number of licenses statewide. Warren called the next morning and started looking for spaces the same day.

He found the space through a broker who had one more space to show him after several that didn’t click. It was the former bar area of Lespri Prime Steak and Sushi, which closed during the pandemic. Warren said he knew immediately.

“This is not on Main Street. It’s charming and small. It’s not a massive undertaking. I don’t need to raise money, I don’t need a partner,” he said. “It’s exactly what I wanted.”

He moved quickly. Conditional approval from the DABS came in December, the Park City Planning Commission signed off in January, and renovations wrapped in February. The Parlor opened a few weeks ago.

The crowd Warren is after lives in Prospector, Park City Heights, or Park Meadows, and much of it, he said, looks a lot like him: former big-city residents who ended up here and stayed.

His goal is to build community; regulars who know the bartender by name and vice versa, recognize each other across the room, and treat the place as an end-of-day ritual, stop before dinner, or to pass the time.

On the drinks side, Warren stocked the shelves with an eye toward the neighborhood. High West and Alpine Distillery represent the local anchors, alongside Beehive gin from Salt Lake City.

Beers skew local as well, with most coming from breweries in and around the region, and Miller Light for $5. Warren said the pricing is intentional.

“We’re buying our beers at the same liquor store you are, paying the same price,” he said. “It’s hard to make a great margin on a craft beer, but it’s a neighborhood bar. I’m not here to gouge my guests.”

Warren partnered with Ben Oloffson at Daily Rise for canned cold brew rather than pulling individual shots for espresso martinis.

Food is kept simple and sourced as locally as possible. Bavarian pretzels come from Pretzel Connection in Heber City, olives from Sweets and Cheeses inside The Market, and Warren is working with chef Matt Nelson, who runs a catering operation out of the former Lespri kitchen just across the hall, on eventual bar snacks. Auntie Em cookies are coming too.

The cocktail menu will evolve. For now, it centers on classics Warren and his wife drink most, with Negroni variations anchoring one section. A rotating list of six to eight house originals is the next phase.

“My goal was to get the doors open and introduce ourselves to the neighborhood,” Warren said. “Once I have a consistent crowd, the regulars are going to tell me what Scotch goes on the top shelf, what tequila, what rum. If you’re planning on frequenting my establishment, I’m going to buy what you want to drink.”

He’s already making good on that. A couple from Park Meadows came in after reading about the bar, and the husband mentioned he was a Mount Gay rum drinker. Warren picked up a bottle the same day.

“He’s going to come back and see it on the shelf,” Warren said. “There’s no ifs, ands, or buts about that.”

The Parlor is open at 4 p.m. daily, closing at 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and midnight on weekends. More information is available at theparlorparkcity.com and on Instagram at @theparlorparkcity.